Not just the young Yaz

Delmarva Shorebirds outfielder Mike Yastrzemski leads off of first base last Tuesday evening during an exhibition game against Salisbury University at home.(Photo11: Justin Odendhal, Justin Odendhal photo)Buy Photo

The minors are a constant tryout, and when the name Yastrzemski is hot-iron pressed to the back of the jersey, every eye is watching.

For 23-year-old Mike Yastrzemski, grandson of Hall of Fame outfielder Carl Yastrzemski, who played 23 seasons for the Boston Red Sox, it is all ordinary.

“I don’t feel any extra pressure,” Yastrzemski said. “I don’t feel the need to go and do anything more spectacular than anyone else. It’s just go out there and have fun.”

Yastrzemski was a touted prospect coming out of St. John’s Prep in Danvers, Mass. He continued his career at Vanderbilt University, and was drafted twice before the Baltimore Orioles took him with a 14th-round pick in 2013. Ironically enough, the Red Sox were one of those teams, as they selected Yastrzemski with a 36th-round pick in 2009. He batted .273 last season with three home runs, 25 RBIs and an on-base plus slugging percentage of .781 in 57 games with the Aberdeen IronBirds.

Now, Yastrzemski takes on a lengthened season with the Delmarva Shorebirds as he tries to climb the ladder up the minor league system.

“Everybody remembers that name,” Shorebirds’ manager Ryan Minor said. “I know the older baseball folks will be getting excited about it because he was one of the best baseball players of his time. But for me, I’m just excited to have him playing outfield every day, hitting at the top of the lineup, scoring some runs and making plays on defense.”

There is no sense from Yastrzemski that everything has been handed to him on a silver platter. He’s taken the swings in the cage, the flyballs and the daily grind of baseball his whole life, just like any other player.

Shorebirds hitting coach Paco Figueroa would know. He played for the Delmarva squad in 2005, and was at Aberdeen with Yastrzemski last season.

“If anything, opposite,” Figueroa said. “You wouldn’t even know that Carl is his grandfather. Mike’s a great player and a great kid. He’s like to work. The best thing about him is his work ethic. He just goes about his business every day.”

That’s not to say that the 23-year old outfielder doesn’t see his grandfather as a role model.

However, even if he’s not trying to live up to Yaz’s legacy or surpass it, everyone wants to see similarities, right down to the batting stance.

Yastrzemski could only muster a laugh.

“I see more (similarities) in a work ethic sense,” Yastrzemski said of the comparisons to Carl. “I try and work as hard as I can and not take any sympathy from anyone. He has Hall of Fame numbers. That’s nothing to even try and compare too or search for. So (I’m) just trying to emulate how he got there.”

A ‘normal’ relationship

While baseball has always been a part of Mike’s and Carl’s lives, it has not always been at the forefront of their relationship.

When Mike was in eighth grade, his father, Michael, passed away.

But Carl was there.

“He kind of picked up in a role,” Mike said. “We would still talk back then, but it wasn’t as often. It wasn’t as that relationship. So he definitely helped out a lot.”

The two try to talk every so often on the phone — whether it be about fishing, golf or of course baseball — to keep their relationship normal.

But that took a turn this spring when the young Yastrzemski entered his first game for the Orioles as a pinch runner and scored a run against the Red Sox as Yaz looked on.

“The attention was pretty crazy,” Mike said about the game. “I was told that I had to go do a quick interview, and I thought that I was going to be talking to like one or two people. All of a sudden, 30 people swarmed over, and I was like … (swooshing mumbling sound of surprise), whoa.”

Something new

Yaz, a Triple Crown winner, Hall of Fame left fielder and a legend who replaced Ted Williams, still had not done it all. That moment was a first for the grandfather and grandson.

“It was really cool to see him in that environment because we’d never been on a field like that together,” Yastrzemski said. “In that sense, we were opponents. We weren’t rooting for each other. It was fun for sure to see him there.”

Now, baseball fans on Delmarva wait for any glimpse of the revered Yastrzemski to show up at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium, and hope to see the outfielder blossom into the next Manny Machado- or Dylan Bundy-type prospect.